Obama package focuses mainly on alternative power sources
By JENNIFER A. DLOUHY and TOM FOWLER
Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
Feb. 7, 2009
WASHINGTON — Since oil gushed from Spindletop in 1901, the Houston area has been the energy capital of the United States and a major destination for federal dollars devoted to oil and gas production.
But the mammoth economic stimulus bill that is winding its way through Congress largely bypasses Houston-based energy giants and fossil-fuel development in favor of funding new technologies to glean power from crops, the sun and heat trapped beneath the earth.
“There’s not a lot of oil and gas” money in the stimulus bill, said Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston.
Instead, President Barack Obama’s package focuses most of its attention, and an expected $54 billion or more in energy spending, on renewable and alternative power sources, not on the fossil fuel production of Houston’s major oil companies.
The stimulus plan’s largesse will directly benefit Houston-area biorefineries that transform cooking oil and crops into fuel and on energy developers who install vast wind power farms on the West Texas plains.
The federal dollars also are likely to help pay for a state project to build power lines between remote wind farms and Houston and Dallas.
(More here.)
Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
Feb. 7, 2009
WASHINGTON — Since oil gushed from Spindletop in 1901, the Houston area has been the energy capital of the United States and a major destination for federal dollars devoted to oil and gas production.
But the mammoth economic stimulus bill that is winding its way through Congress largely bypasses Houston-based energy giants and fossil-fuel development in favor of funding new technologies to glean power from crops, the sun and heat trapped beneath the earth.
“There’s not a lot of oil and gas” money in the stimulus bill, said Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston.
Instead, President Barack Obama’s package focuses most of its attention, and an expected $54 billion or more in energy spending, on renewable and alternative power sources, not on the fossil fuel production of Houston’s major oil companies.
The stimulus plan’s largesse will directly benefit Houston-area biorefineries that transform cooking oil and crops into fuel and on energy developers who install vast wind power farms on the West Texas plains.
The federal dollars also are likely to help pay for a state project to build power lines between remote wind farms and Houston and Dallas.
(More here.)
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